PUBLIC NOTICE
Application for Waiver of Requirements under the Federal Charter School Program
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI) is submitting a waiver from certain regulations within Sections 4301 – 4311 under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and an amendment to WDPI’s FY17 Charter School Program (CSP) State Entity grant award.
Section 840l(a)(3) of ESEA, as amended by ESSA, allows the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to waive any statutory or regulatory requirement of this Act for which a waiver request is submitted. All waiver requests are required to address a number of components, which are included below.
Through the waiver of Section 4303(c)(1)(A) of Title IV, Part C of the ESEA, as amended by ESSA, WDPI seeks to budget and spend less than 90% of its total award on subgrants. The WDPI is requesting approval to shift $862,042 of funds initially budgeted for subgrants to its technical assistance (TA) work in order to complete the objectives of the project as originally approved. In total, these funds account for less than 1% of the total award amount and will result in the WDPI budgeting and spending 89% of its overall award on subgrants.
Approval of this waiver will allow the Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools (WRCCS), Wisconsin’s TA center created and funded by the CSP, to fully carry out the main objectives of this CSP project as originally approved. Those objectives are:
- Support the growth of high-quality charter schools in Wisconsin, especially those focused on improving academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged secondary students;
- Strengthen and improve authorizing quality and promote the adoption of best practices for all authorizers in Wisconsin; and
- Promote and support collaboration and sharing of best practices between high-quality charter schools and other schools in the state, especially those that experience difficulty in adequately serving educationally disadvantaged students.
Background Information
In 2017, the WDPI was awarded a five-year $95 million grant to support quality charter schools in Wisconsin. The main objectives of the grant are to:
- Support the growth of high-quality charter schools in Wisconsin, especially those focused on improving academic outcomes for educationally disadvantaged secondary students;
- Strengthen and improve authorizing quality and promote the adoption of best practices for all authorizers in Wisconsin; and
- Promote and support collaboration and sharing of best practices between high-quality charter schools and other schools in the state, especially those that experience difficulty in adequately serving educationally disadvantaged students.
The Wisconsin Charter Schools Program (CSP) has made significant progress towards meeting the overall objectives of the CSP grant in its first three years. To date, WDPI and its partners have awarded 37 subgrants, developed a suite of resources around Wisconsin-specific best practices, created a charter school governance board development program, created a charter school classroom/leadership development program, and authorizer development program, and developed a mentorship program with charter schools from across the state.
The waiver requests described below align with the purposes of the CSP and generally fall within the scope and objectives of the WDPI’s approved application, as these flexibilities will enable the state to support the growth of high-quality charter schools, particularly those serving educationally disadvantaged students, through an incredibly
challenging period. Additionally, these waiver requests will allow the WDPI to continue to award subgrants and spend down funds as projected in the approved application.
On April 7, 2021, Wisconsin simultaneously received approval for a no-cost extension (NCE) for a Year 6 of its grant, beginning October 1, 2022 and ending September 30, 2023, and also received an award reduction of $9,573,603.
WDPI intends to request two additional NCEs for Years 7 and 8 in order to complete approved grant objectives. WDPI intends to offer a final competition in Year 7 with a two year award. Subgrant applications for the final competition would be due in February 2024. Upon receiving the award reduction, WDPI began reforecasting and projecting subgrantee, TA, and administrative budgets and allocations. At this time, even with the award reduction, the WDPI still intends to make 115 subgrant awards as initially proposed; however, the WDPI has found that the requested subgrant award amounts have generally been for lower amounts than the WDPI initially anticipated (see the Budget Information section for more information). In order to continue providing personalized support to all subgrantees and schools joining the CSP (as well as charter schools throughout the state) and support them with the same high quality TA that subgrantees accessed in the earlier years of the grant period, WDPI must continue allocating sufficient funds to WRCCS.
Updated Pipeline from FY21 APR |
Type of Subaward | 2017- 18 | 2018- 19 | 2019- 20 | 2020- 21 | Projected 2021-22 | Projected 2022-23* | Projected 2023-24* | Total |
Planning and Implementation | 10 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 59 |
Implementation Only | 10 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 27 |
Expansion/Replication | 6 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 29 |
* Indicates a No-Cost Extension - If approved by USDE, WDPI anticipates running competitions during an additional No- Cost Extensions and reaching pipeline targets.
WRCCS Successes
Through the network of contract partners comprising WRCCS, WRCCS has developed a suite of resources around Wisconsin-specific authorizer best practices. This set of resources follows the National Association of Charter School Authorizer (NACSA) Principles and Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing and incorporated stakeholder input, as well as comprehensive feedback and development from partners including NACSA, the National Charter Schools Institute, and SchoolWorks. In addition to the suite of online and print resources, WRCCS delivers personalized support to active and inactive authorizers throughout the state. Using a similar stakeholder process, WRCCS also developed templates for a model school application and evaluation process. In addition, WRCCS maintains an authorizer development program to train new and existing authorizers on these resources and other practices that strengthen and improve authorizer quality.
The WRCCS charter school mentorship program is operational and comprised of 21 mentor schools (sustainable WI charters) that support charter schools across the state. All subgrantees have created action plans and are working towards their required technical assistance goals. WRCCS mentor schools also host Professional Learning Networks
(PLNs) around requested topics. During the 2021-22 school year, the PLNs expanded to include various pedagogical models, board work, and design team work.
In addition to resources above, WRCCS created a charter school governance board development program and charter school classroom/leadership development program. WRCCS delivered 260 live trainings since the start of the grant, developed 49 web-based on-demand training courses, maintained an online charter school yearbook, provided 1,400 hours of direct technical assistance, and generated many additional resources, all of which promote the sharing of best practices among high-quality charter schools and other schools in the state, including traditional public schools. The fourth annual WRCCS conference in 2021 focused on many of these best practices and drew over 300 attendees from across the state, including non-subgrantee charter schools and traditional public schools. The WDPI also focuses on charter school best practices nationally by forging partnerships with national organizations and attending the National Charter Schools Conference.
WRCCS WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION BY STAKEHOLDER JULY 1, 2017-SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 |
AUTHORIZER ENTITY PARTICIPANTS | GOVERNANCE BOARD PARTICIPANTS | TOTAL LEADER PARTICIPANTS | TOTAL CLASSROOM PARTICIPANTS | TOTAL |
| 488 board member participants | 799 leader/classroom participants | 1,425 participants |
76 active authorizing institutions engaged (41 use the WRCCS application) | | 369 non-charter district employees accessed leader/classroom support | Within total leader/classroom support provided, 46% were non- charter district employees | |
Need for Additional TA Funds During Final Grant Years
Through Year 5, the WDPI will have spent or obligated $5,862,407 of the $6,034,292 currently budgeted for TA costs, accounting for 7% of the overall award amount, and leaving $171,885 to spend during all NCE periods. This rate of spending was initially projected to fund WRCCS through multiple NCE periods; however, the award reduction at the start of year 5 of the WDPI’s award and the pipeline trends changed this.
As noted above, the WPDI expects to still award 115 subgrants in total, as initially projected in the grant application, with 53 of those subawards made from the 2021-22 to the 2023-24 school year.
As WRCCS continues to provide necessary TA to support the creation and expansion of high-quality charter schools, WRCCS will have more subgrants to support than in previous years, which is not possible with a reduced TA budget.
Grant Year / School Year | Subgrantees Provided TA |
Year 6 (NCE) / 2022-23 | 71 (projected) |
Year 7 (NCE, if approved) / 2023-24 | 69 (projected) |
WRCCS has assumed the TA responsibilities described in the WDPI’s grant application, and there is a cost associated with implementing the ambitious plan as originally approved. Due to the level of efficacy and expertise at the resource center, WRCCS has assisted first-time tribal authorizers, district-authorizers, and independent authorizers serving students across the entire state. Additionally, WRCCS provided crucial TA to charter schools, including virtual charter schools and those shifting to provide virtual instruction temporarily and for the first time, during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the WDPI presents a process and plan for closing out the grant, supporting WRCCS is critical to ensuring the completion of the goals of the project as originally approved.
The goal of adequately funding WRCCS while concurrently closing out the grant is twofold: the professionals providing high-quality technical assistance are assured they have resources through the end of the grant, and the schools entering WDPI have the support they need to become established high-quality charter schools.
